Through the Loops!: Beach Street Park

For two (or was it three?) years I had three skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Woobu taunting me from my stash. I picked this yarn up at the first VK Live in NYC because I'd worked with Woobu when I created Swing Time for Knitting it Old School and I'd loved the yarn. I wanted to create a sweater that would take advantage of Woobu's lovely drape. My idea was to make a sweater that was as comfortable and easy to wear as a sweatshirt, but more elegant and refined. Something that I would want to wear over and over again.

So in December I finally grabbed one of those skeins off the shelf and cast on. The original incarnation of Beach Street Park was made for me, and I have worn it constantly since. But when I'd finished, there were a few quirks with it that worked in my size, but wouldn't stand up to grading it into a broad range of sizes. Luckily I still had close to 1.5 skeins of yarn left (this stuff comes in ENORMOUS hanks, and yes I did get two sweaters out of three skeins). So I cast on a second Beach Street Park in S & I's size. This time I made adjustments that would work for a large range of sizes. The hardest part was preventing Sofie from taking the second version off to college with her before I could photograph it. (She has it now, and wears it regularly.)

I recommend wearing this sweater with 0-2" of ease in the bust. Sofie is rocking it with 0" of ease in these photos - I wear mine with closer to 2". (Sorry, no photos of mine - it's different enough from the pattern that I don't want to confuse anyone.)

Beach Street Park

Size: to fit bust 32 [34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52]” with 2” ease.

Finished Bust: 34 [36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54]”

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Woobu, 60% Merino / 40% Bambu, 620 yds / 566m per 8 oz / 226g skein, color: Ravenscroft 2 [2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3] skeins
Approx 830 [900, 965, 1025, 1125, 1200, 1260, 1315, 1430, 1515, 1585] yds

Needles:
One set US 7 (4.5mm) 32” circular needles
One set US 7 (4.5mm) double pointed needles or size to obtain gauge

Gauge: 16 sts & 30 rows = 4”/10cm in Stockinette Stitch- blocked, always take the time to check gauge

Other Materials: stitch markers, tapestry needle, scrap yarn

Price: $6.50 US

I had an amazing group of test knitters on this pattern. Show them some love by heading over to Ravelry and checking out their projects - Mari, Denise, Sara (and Sara's blog), Lori, Patty, Beth, Yiling, & Nadia. And thank you as always to my friend and tech editor Karen.